Workshop Geometric and Numerical Foundations of Movements

PhD Defense by Olivier Roussel

Motion planning for elastic rods

The motion planning problem has been broadly studied in the case of articulated rigid body systems but so far few work have considered deformable bodies. In particular, elastic rods such as electric cables, hydraulic or pneumatic hoses, appear in many industrial contexts. Due to complex models and high number of degrees of freedom, the extension of motion planning methods to such bodies is a difficult problem. By taking advantage of the properties of static equilibrium configurations, this thesis presents several approaches to the motion planning problem for elastic rods. See more

Workshop WP6 Euroc

Visit of Michael Gleicher

Seminar topic: Many different things we do as computer scientists involve doing things that will be viewed and interpreted by people. In this talk, I will discuss how we have been applying ideas from perceptual science to two very different areas: data visualization and human/agent interaction. I will describe how we have been developing an understanding of the visual system's abilities to see aggregate properties (like average value) and applying this knowledge to design new information presentations. I will also describe methods for applying machine learning technologies to simplify data so that it is easier to comprehend. I will describe how the knowledge and techniques of perceptual science is influencing our work in character animation. Specifically, I will describe our efforts to understand how subtle aspects of movement can be controlled to create communicative effects. I will show examples about how virtual agents move their eyes, and discuss our work to apply these same ideas to robots. I will also introduce a new effort to consider robot arm motion.

Bio: Michael Gleicher is a Professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Prof. Gleicher is founder of the Department's Computer Graphics group. His research interests span the range of visual computing, including data visualization, image and video processing tools, virtual reality, and character animation techniques for films, games and robotics. Prior to joining the university, Prof. Gleicher was a researcher at The Autodesk Vision Technology Center and in Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group. He earned his Ph. D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and holds a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from Duke University. For the 2013-2014 academic year, he is a visiting researcher at INRIA Rhone-Alpes. Prof. Gleicher is an ACM Distinguished Scientist.

HDR defense of Nicolas Mansard

Semiotics of motion

The work presented in this thesis is aiming at establishing the bases of a semiotics of motion, in order to facilitate the programming of complex robotics systems. The objective is to build a symbolic model of the action, based on the analysis of the numerical functions that drive the motion (control and planning). The methodology comes from the well-known robotics concepts: motion-planning algorithms, control of redundant systems and task-function approach. The originality of the work is to consider the task as the unifying concept both to describe the motion and to control its execution.

PhD Defense by Antonio El Khoury

Planning Optimal Motions for Anthropomorphic Systems

This thesis deals with the development and study of algorithms for
planning optimal motions for anthropomorphic systems, which are
underactuated and highly redundant systems, such as humanoid robots
and digital actors. See more

New PhD students

Thomas Moulard PhD Defense

This thesis title is "Numerical Optimization for robotics and
closed-loop trajectory execution".

The presented work is divided into two parts. In the first one, an
unified computer representation for numerical
optimization problems is proposed. This model allows to define
problems independently from the algorithm used to
solve it. This unified model is particularly interesting in robotics
where exact solutions are difficult to find.
The second part is dealing with complex trajectory execution on
humanoid robots with sensor feedback. When a biped
robots walks, contact points often slip producing a drift which is
necessary to compensate. We propose here a closed-loop
control scheme allowing the use of sensor feedback to cancel execution
errors. To finish, a method for the the development
of complex robotics application is detailed. This thesis contributions
have been implemented on the HRP-2 humanoid robot.

HRP2 in demonstration in Collège de France, Paris.

In the frame of the Collège de France 2011/2012 Technological Innovation Lilliane Bettencourt Chair 'ROBOTICS THE FOUNDATIONS OF A DISCIPLINE', the robot HRP-2 will be presented in Paris. The lecture will last one hour. The robot will execute seven demonstrations. The video of the lecture will be available online shortly after the lecture.

New ANR Grant Flecto.

The group has been founded by the ANR for the call "Numerical Models", to study the motion of deformable objects, like cables. The project will be realized in collaboration with the CEA/LIST of Fontenay-Aux-Roses, and the company KineoCam from Toulouse.

Oscar Ramos starts his PhD.

Oscar Ramos Ponce has started is PhD in the Gepetto group. He did is master with us, supervised by L. Saab, obtaining very nice results on the animation of the robot dynamics, and them was the leading developper on the Novela event. His topic is about applying the results obtained in simulation or replayed in open loop by the robot, on a real rigorous close-loop manner.

Danse with HRP2 at the Novela Festival.

On saturday evening, the robot will be demonstrated in a modern dance event. The choregraphy has been designed by the artis Tayeb Benamara, that will danse with the robot during 20 minutes, on the rythmics of the DJ EnjeB. The presentation is at 7PM at the Salle du Cap, on the Campus Rangueil, Toulouse.

Jean-Paul Laumond professor at the Collège de France.

Jean-Paul Laumond holds the Technological Innovation Liliane Bettencourt Chair for the year 2011/2012 at the Collège de France.
The title of the lectures is ROBOTICS THE FOUNDATIONS OF A DISCIPLINE. The lectures will be announced on the web site of the chair. They are free and open to all publics. The videos of the lectures will then be available on the same web site.

Philippe Souères leads the team.

Next year, Jean-Paul Laumond, who is at the origin of the Gepetto team and was leading it from its creation, is chairman at the Collège de France. The lead of the Gepetto group is now hold by Philippe Souères.